Barbecue Pork Rub Recipe

Confession time. When I’m doing pork ribs or pulled pork I normally just grab a store bought rub from the pantry.

I’m especially partial to Plowboys Yardbird Rub for any kind of pork. But there is no reason why you can’t make your own pork rub at home and save cost.

All of the ingredients for this general purpose pork rub should already be in your pantry. This is definitely a recipe where you can adjust the ingredients to your taste.

The aim is to create a well balanced rub with a mix of sweet and savory spice.

About the pork rub

It doesn’t get much easier than making this dry rub. Simply measure each ingredient out and dump it into a bowl before mixing it all together and applying.

Scroll down to the bottom to see the full list of ingredients, or read on for some more tips for using this rub.

Even if you like your ribs wet and saucy, this dry rub makes an excellent base.

Here are a few other tips:

Even though it’s aimed at pork, this is a good general purpose barbecue rub and will work great on chicken or turkey. Just don’t use it on beef as the sweetness will be too much.

You can try leaving the salt out of the rub, that way you can salt the meat first and let it penetrate over night. 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt per pound of meat (excluding bone) works well. You definitely don’t have to do this though.

I used smoked paprika in this video to get a little extra smokey flavor. There are loads of varieties of paprika out there, but try and use either smoked or sweet for the best flavor.

If you really don’t like spice you could use just 1/4 a teaspoon of cayenne, but I think it’s much better with a little kick.

Using the rub

The first thing I always like to do before applying a rub is apply a small base layer of flavor. I simply sprinkle some salt, pepper and garlic powder over the meat.

The next step is to get it a little bit wet so the dry rub can bind. For pork ribs or pulled pork I like using yellow mustard.

Simply squirt some on and use your hands to spread it around. It’s more for binding than flavor, but I reckon the sugar in the mustard helps with the bark formation. You can use a few splashes of water.

My dog was very keen to supervise me during this step.

When you’re ready to apply the rub you can use a rub shaker or just sprinkle it on with your hands. I like to apply it liberally but not so much to where you can’t see the meat.

The sugar can get lumpy so you may need to crumble it up by hand.

After use you can store this rub in an airtight container for a few months.

How to Reheat Brisket (without making it dry)

The problem is that once my family (and dog) have eaten our full, there’s usually still a few pounds of meat leftover.

And if you’ve ever tried to reheat leftover brisket you’ve probably noticed that it tastes nothing like the delicious smoked brisket you were enjoying the day before.

If you’re sick of leathery leftover brisket, keep reading. In this guide you’ll learn the 3 best ways to reheat brisket as well as a few secrets the barbecue pro’s use to keep their brisket moist.

How to Store and Freeze your Brisket

How you freeze your brisket largely depends on the answer to the following question:

Do you slice your brisket before your after you freeze it? Let’s have a look at the pros and cons of both.

Slicing Before you Freeze

Pro’s:

Slicing your brisket and freezing the slices so they can be reheated individually is very handy if you only need to reheat a couple of slices at a time.

Brisket slices will not take up as much room in your freezer as a whole brisket will.

Con’s:

If you’re not careful, you can be left with dried out brisket when you freeze it in slices.

Because the meat is sliced, there is more surface area that could be exposed to contamination. Maintain high hygiene standards, and put the slices into the freezer as soon as they are prepared to avoid this issue arising.

Slicing After you Freeze

Pro’s:

The brisket will retain a lot of its moisture if it is frozen whole.

There is less chance of contamination as the exposed surface area is reduced.

You will have to reheat it all in one go, and this will take longer then reheating slices.

How to keep your brisket as moist as possible

If you chose to slice before you freeze, let the brisket cool while sitting in its own juices. This will ensure it retains as much moisture as possible.

Freeze the slices on a flat sheet of baking paper initially. This will allow them to freeze separately. Once they are frozen, pop them in a ziplock bag. Now you will be able to take them out separately as you need them.

Malcom Reed of howtobbqright.com suggests letting the brisket rest, then separating the fat out of the cooking juices, leaving the quality au jus behind.

Then, after placing the whole brisket and the au jus into a foil food service pan, he vacuum packs the whole thing, pan and all, making reheating, with juices and all, a breeze.

The Best Ways to Reheat Brisket

There are a few ways you can reheat a brisket. Depending on how much time you have, or how you froze the brisket in the first place, the best way to reheat will differ.

A Word on Food Safety: It is important to check the temperature and not the clock when reheating. The internal temperature of the meat needs to reach 160°F for it to be safe to eat.

Similarly, when reheating a whole brisket in the oven or the smoker, make sure you have let it defrost properly first. This means letting it defrost for around two days in the fridge.

While you can also thaw meat in cold water baths, thawing in the fridge is the easiest way to thaw your meat without losing too much moisture, and without leaving your meat in the “danger zone” of 40-130°F.

1) Reheating Brisket in the Oven

If you have frozen your brisket whole, the oven is probably the quickest and easiest way to reheat your meat.

Preheat the oven to around 325°F.

Once the brisket has defrosted, and the oven has reached temperature, pop the brisket in the oven and cover it with foil. Two layers of foil is even better if you want to be sure that there are no holes in the foil. Holes in the foil will lead to dried out meat.

Your brisket should be ready in about an hour, once the internal temperature has hit
160° F

When reheating in the oven, there is the tendency for the meat to dry out. To avoid this, either make sure the original cooking juices are still in the bottom of the cooking tray, or add some moisture.

One suggestion is to reduce two cups of apple cider or apple juice by half, add a couple of tablespoons of your favorite barbecue sauce and pour that mixture into the bottom of the pan. You can use this as a sauce once the brisket is reheated.

2) Reheating in your Smoker

Once the meat is thawed out, you may also choose to reheat it in your smoker.

Reheating in the smoker is much the same as reheating in the oven, only it will take longer.

Meathead Goldwyn, of amazingribs.com suggests the following method in his guide to reheating leftovers

Sit your foil-wrapped brisket in the indirect zone until the internal temperature of the meat reaches 155°F

Unwrap the brisket and finish it off over the direct zone for around 5-10 minutes. Make sure you check that the internal temperature has reached 160°F before serving.

Keep an eye on your meat to make sure it does not burn when it is over direct heat.

If you are cooking on a gas grill, setting it to medium heat should be about right for reheating.

3) Using the Sous Vide Method to Reheat your Brisket

This method is great because you will never dry out or overcook the brisket when reheating it this way. We have to give credit to foodfirefriends.com for the idea to use sous vide to reheat brisket.

If you haven’t heard of sous vide before don’t worry. It sounds fancy, but sous vide is just another word for a water bath. It’s a pretty interesting method for cooking that’s been growing in popularity over the last few years.

Check out the video below if you’re interested to learn more.

The downside is that you need the right equipment for this method. It also isn’t the quickest way to reheat your brisket.

Here is a run down of how it works:

Meat is vacuum sealed in an air and water tight plastic wrap

Water temperature is between 110-175°F

Meat is left in the water bath until the internal temperature of the meat reaches the same temperature as the water bath.

For a whole brisket which is around 4 inches thick, this will take around five hours. For pre sliced brisket around two inches thick, it will only take two hours.

While there are very specialised thermometers out there to check the meats internal temperature when cooking or reheating this way, they are not commonly used outside of commercial kitchens.

What About Boiling or Microwaving Leftover Brisket?

You may feel tempted to whack the brisket in the microwave, as it is an indisputably quick way to reheat food.

Trouble is, microwaving works by turning the water molecules into steam. Essentially the brisket will be steamed from the inside out.

This will leave you with dry, rubbery and downright horrible meat. Plain old waste of a brisket if you ask us.

How about boiling? Boiling a brisket that is wrapped in an airtight covering can have pretty good results. Similar to the sous vide method, the meat doesn’t dry out.

The trick is ascertaining the internal temperature of the meat, as you will still have to ensure that it has reached at least 160°F for it to be safe to eat. While there are sous vide cooking charts, they will not generally reach the water temperatures when boiling.

Thus, ensuring the meat has reached a safe internal temperature is a concern when boiling meat to reheat it.

What to do with your Leftover Brisket

If you are open to trying something different, there are countless ways you can use leftover brisket, and you can find a whole stack of them in this roundup of leftover brisket recipes.

But just to give you some inspiration, here are some of our favourite ideas:

Shepherd’s Pie or Cottage Pie: Technically, the beef version of this recipe should be called cottage pie, but that is irrelevant. Using cut up chunks of your leftover brisket in this classic recipe not only yields delicious results, but also makes for a quick, easy and filling midweek meal.

Quesadillas or Tacos: If you have any tortillas laying around, the addition of leftover brisket is a match made in heaven. Keep it simple with cheese and sauce, or jazz it up with toppings such as pickled onions and avocado sauce.

Beef Stroganoff: Creamy, hearty and filling, beef stroganoff is a family classic. And if you have leftover brisket it is quick and easy to whip up too.

Wrapping It Up

We hope you have enjoyed our guide to reheating brisket. Brisket yields such a good amount of tasty meat that knowing how to freeze, reheat and reuse it means you can get the most out of this delicious cut.

What do you find is the most convenient way to freeze and reheat brisket? Or do you have any questions that were not covered in this post? Let us know in the comments section below. And if you found this article helpful, be sure to share.

9 Leftover Beef Brisket Recipes

After smoking a brisket, no matter how lip smacking delicious it was, there are almost always leftovers. A brisket yields a lot of meat.

If you are looking for some ideas for how to use your leftover brisket, then check out this list of 9 great ideas to get your mouth watering (again).

1) Brisket Grilled Cheese Sandwich (You won’t need an afternoon snack if you have this for lunch)

spicysouthernkitchen.com

Think of all the very best comfort food items. Creamy, melted cheese perhaps? How about warm crispy bread, lightly toasted? And don’t forget juicy, flavor packed beef, smoked to perfection. Can you imagine all of these things combined into one?

Welcome to the brisket grilled cheese sandwich.

After all the work you put into smoking that delicious brisket, it’s nice to make something really easy the next day.

You only need two or three slices of brisket to make this special sandwich, and you can have this warm, filling meal ready in around 15 minutes.

Just by reading its name you can tell this is a proper recipe in its own right. If you find yourself needing to entertain back to back, then have this one at the ready.

With the addition of carrots, broccoli, peas etc there is a fair serving of veggies in this dish. Now I am not going so far as to say it falls into the “health food” category, but “hearty” would be a fair description.

The jalapeno cheddar mash is a great twist on a classic mashed taters as well.

Ingredients:

2 pounds Chopped Smoked Brisket

3 Carrots, sliced or chopped evenly

1 head Broccoli, cut into bite sized florets

2 cups frozen Mixed Vegetables, corn, peas, etc

1 Red or Sweet Onion, minced

2 Tbsp Butter

1 Tbsp Olive Oil

1 ½ cup Beef Broth

3-4 Tbsp Flour

2 pounds baby red potatoes, quartered

1 ½ cups shredded Cheddar Cheese

1 jalapeno finely minced, seeds removed for less heat

4 Tbsp Butter, cut into cubes

½ cup Sour Cream

¼ cup Whipping Cream or Half and Half

3 cloves Garlic, minced

Salt and Pepper to taste

Planning of a big weekend of entertaining? Then head down and grab your brisket, and while it is smoking, check out the smoked brisket shepherd’s pie recipe here.

5) Beef Brisket Street Tacos

rockymountaincooking.com

Tacos are the perfect size meal if you want something that fills you up yet is not going to leave you with (more) leftovers. Make just as much as you want and eat it when you feel peckish.

This recipe calls for pickled onions. Of course you can grab them right off the store shelf, but for those who love a bit of DIY, the recipe for pickling the onions is included in the recipe for the tacos.

Aside from frying up the brisket and whipping up the avocado cream sauce (which sounds amazing) there is nothing much else to do than heat up the tortillas, then pile those ingredients on.

Ingredients:

olive oil

2 cups leftover brisket or pot roast (click on link in post for the brisket recipe)

6) Brisket Stroganoff (ultimate comfort food in 30 minutes)

The mention of beef stroganoff (or brisket stroganoff, in this case) brings to mind the words creamy, meaty, and buttery.

Pile it on pasta, or mash, and you are in for a real treat.

Generally, the ingredients in this dish are those you would typically have on hand, but you might want to check that you have some Chianti, as it is required along with worcestershire sauce to deglaze the pan.

7) Leftovers Cottage Pie

Not only will this classic cottage pie recipe work beautifully with brisket, but also with leftover lamb, chicken or even that ground beef you need to defrost and use before it expires.

Really, though, we are mainly interested in making it with leftover brisket, as the flavor packed into the brisket, along with the easily shreddable texture of the meat after smoking it makes it a pleasure to cook with.

Ingredients:

3 cups cooked leftover beef brisket or roast, shredded and chopped

3 cups mashed potatoes (leftover or store-bought)

1 cup frozen vegetables

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 onion, chopped

1 cup mushrooms, chopped

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons flour

1 cup beef broth

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

If you are looking for a quick, filling and tasty midweek meal that everyone will enjoy, check out the recipe here and pull out the leftover brisket ready to go.

This is more than just a tasty chilli, it is an award winning chilli! So brace yourself for something special when you serve this one up.

This recipe plays to the smoky flavors you can expect from a brisket, with the addition of bacon and chipotle sauce giving this chili a truly distinctive flavor profile.

There is quite a bit of spice in this recipe. If you aren’t a fan of too much heat, perhaps hold back a little at first, and add more spices as you go. After you have cooked this one a couple of times you will find the sweet spot.

Ingredients:

3 slices of bacon, diced

1 large onion, about 2 cups, chopped

1 red bell pepper, chopped

3 cloves garlic, finely diced

2 ½ cups leftover smoked beef brisket, cut up into 1-inch cubes

3 tablespoons chili powder*

1 tablespoon cumin

½ tablespoon dry chipotle seasoning** or the equivalent in canned chipotle in adobo sauce, adjustamount to your heat preference. A little goes a long way

½ tablespoon smoked paprika

1 12 oz bottle beer

¼ cup coffee, cold leftover coffee from your morning pot

1 15 oz can diced tomatoes

1 15 oz can tomato sauce

½ can black beans, drained and rinsed, used a standard 15 oz can

½ can kidney beans, drained and rinsed, used a standard 15 oz can

½ can corn, drained and rinsed, used a standard 15 oz can

1 small, 4 oz can diced green chili

You can find the recipe here. If you are feeling extra fancy, scroll down past the chili recipe to discover the perfect wine to accompany it.

9) Sweet and Spicy Brisket Baked Beans

addapinch.com

Reimagine baked beans with the addition of spices, sauces and of course leftover brisket.

Far from an emergency dinner on toast, these baked beans are liable to steal the show next time you have a family dinner.

All you need to do is chop up some extra veggies for heat and flavor, squeeze in some sauces for richness and a little bit of sweet and of course add the brisket to beef them right up.

Let them bubble for around 45 minutes and you have an absolutely mindblowing side dish – or meal. Up to you.

Should You Cook Brisket Fat Side Up or Down?

There are some topics in the world of barbecue that have never really been put to bed. Whether to cook your brisket fat side up or down is one of them.

If you are new to barbecuing, this may be a burning question that you have not been brave enough to ask out loud.

Or, it could be that there are so many conflicting opinions out there that you have given up on finding a straight answer.

Let’s get to the bottom of this.

What Is the Debate About?

Briskets have two distinct sides – one is covered in fat, and another is bare meat.

Aside from these two distinct sides, briskets are made up of two distinct muscles. The Point and the Flat. The pointed end tends to have a thicker covering of fat, while on the flat end the covering of fat is a little thinner.

Sometimes pitmasters will cut the brisket in half before they cook, but most times it’st best left whole.

But the real point of contention, is which way that fat should be facing. Up or down.

Why Cook Brisket Fat Side Up?

Advocates of cooking fat side up claim that the fat will “melt” into the meat, making it moist and juicy.

However, this is a myth.

The truth is that meat cannot absorb fat. Instead, the fat melts and runs off the meat into the drip pan, taking any seasoning you may have put on the meat with it.

To make matters worse, cooking fat side up won’t leave your brisket looking its best.The fat will not form a uniform bark like the bare meat would, leaving you with a not-so-appetizing looking brisket.

However cooking brisket fat side up is not a complete no no. If you use a horizontal offset smoker, or any other smoker wherein the heat comes from above, cooking fat side up is the way to go.

We will have a closer look at why under the section “Where is your heat coming from?”

Why Many Say Fat Side Down is Better

Most of the time, the fat side down team have got it right.

Because the fat is on the bottom, when it melts it will not wash the seasoning away, and the bark retains all the flavors you added.

Additionally, the smoke produced as the fat hits the hot coals will add a great flavor to your meat.

In most cookers, the heat comes from underneath the meat. Fat acts as an insulator. So as your meat cooks it is protected from the intense heat of the fire by the fat that does not melt away. As a result, your meat doesn’t dry out.

Also, the top of the brisket will form a uniform bark, leaving you with a brisket which looks great.

Where’s your heat coming from?

We have touched on this already, but when deciding whether to cook your brisket fat side up or down the determining factor really is the origin of the heat for your cooker.

For example, horizontal offset smokers send the heat in from above. In that case you want to use those insulative properties of the fat cap to shield the meat from the top. Thus, fat side up is the way to go.

So have a look at your cooker, determine where the heat is coming from and you are most of the way to working out which way to sit your brisket.

It is still a good idea to check that the unprotected side of the meat is not drying out. If it is, you can always wrap the brisket in foil or butchers paper roughly halfway through the cook.

What The Pros Say About Fat Up or Down

You can find experts who sit on both sides of this debate. But now that we know that it largely depends on the type of cooker you use, this makes sense.

For instance, Malcom Reed of ‘How To BBQ Right.com’ likes to cook his everyday ‘eating’ briskets fat side up.

“At a contest I would cook brisket fat side down the entire time. But you have to remember with my competition briskets I’ve trimmed off most of the fat, and I’ve injected it with at least 16oz of liquid….

For this “Eating Brisket” we’re not worried about the extra fat or what it looks like after it’s cooked, so I’m going to cook it fat side up the entire time.

I want the final product to have a “beefy” flavor but not be enhanced or artificial. ”

We had a look at the smoker he used in the recipe, and it does appear to be a horizontal offset style smoker, so the direction from which the heat comes in has likely also had a role in this decision.

Similarly, Aaron Franklin, known for cooking a mean brisket, goes fat side up.

But the fat does have a flavor all of its own, and when it drips onto the coals it can impart that flavor to the meat. Meathead Goldwyn, of amazingribs.com says:

“And what about the fat dripping into the fire and being resurrected as flavorful droplets mixed in with smoke? I save the fat cap and put it on the grate over the fire and let it drip away.”

Cooking your brisket fat side down will have a similar outcome, with the fat dripping directly onto the hot coals, and the resulting smoke flavoring your meat.

Wrapping It Up

So no, there is not a ‘one size fits all’ answer to this question of fat up or fat down.But we have discovered some vital facts.

No, the fat will not penetrate your meat as it melts, but it will wash off your rub.
Yes, the smoke coming off the melted fat hitting the coals will flavor your meat.

And yes, the fat will act as an insulative barrier between the heat source and the meat, protecting it from drying out.

The long and short of it? Know your smoker, identify where the heat is coming from, and place the fat cap between the heat and the meat.

We hope you have found this article helpful. Do you have any additional questions or suggestions? Make sure you let us know in the comments section below. And if you did enjoy this article, be sure to share it!